PARTY GAME SAFARI

We scout out some big (party) game

Welcome to the party game safari, where we take you on a short tour through the world of games that work best in herds, packs, flocks and menageries. We’ve spent many hours breaking these down into strict and scientific categories, and now present you with a deeply educational tour of some of our favour types of party game, including a few examples that didn’t quite make it to the list.

LYING-TO-YOUR-FRIENDS GAMES

I can confirm, I’m not the murderer, the fascist, and I’ve laid no skulls. You should absolutely believe me, because I’m your friend, and you can see that I’m not lying, honestly, it’s in my face, see? Except, of course, I could be any one of those. You’re going to try to catch me out, and I’m going to try to frame someone else, and at the end, we’re all going to poke fun at our failures. From Skull to Secret Hitler and everything in between, everyone has the opportunity to dig into lies, encouraging chatter between all players and usually at high player count too.

DRAWING GAMES, WITH A TWIST

From a single doodle bluff (Fake Artist) to a continue test of drawing prowess (Scrawl), these party games rely on everyone being just a little bit rubbish at drawing to add amusement to the game. Thankfully, most of us are just that, and so the results are usually hilarious. Take Scrawl for instance – draw something from a card, pass it on, they’ll write what they think you’ve drawn, the next player draws what they wrote, and so on, until Chinese whispers sees a fascinating end creation that looks nothing like its origin. Sure, we’re no Van Gough, but we’re all art experts when we’re arguing the difference between a unicorn and a rhino in marker on whiteboard medium.

TOURNAMENT GAMES

Whether you’re the one who, upon competition, becomes a Hulk-like victory seeking menace (me), or the one who’s simply there for the fun, tournament games are the style that gets everyone involved.

Play your round, hopefully win and rise, step by step, into the hard earned victory that allows you to crow over your opponents – or lose early, spectate, cheer, boo, and predict your winner. A Game of Cat and Mouth should be on your list for this, with a get pumped playlist in the background basically a necessity.

TEAM GAMES

Once you’ve buddied up in a game, your fates are tied. Whether that’s as the wheelbarrower-in-chief in 20 Second Showdown, or as the engineer in Captain Sonar, putting victory in the hands of your friends is joyously fraught with drama. Will you call it wrong and steer yourself into a ship, or fail to give the right kind of clue to your team? Either way, the pressure is on. These games are often the ones you’ll remember because of who you were with – however unlikely the pairing – and how it all fell apart.

TASKS AND CHALLENGE GAMES

There’s a personal resurgence of interest in task style party games, inspired by Taskmaster. Now, not only must I complete an action as part of a game, but

I’m going to find the most

inventive possible way of doing so. Take Don’t Get Got for instance, a Big Potato Game of tiny challenges you complete by casually tricking others into doing something on your card. The plan now is elaborate trickery, with foundations laid early… of course, having said that, true enjoyment of this style of game is almost always in the hilarious inevitable failures, so really, everybody wins.

ITCHY TRIGGER FINGER DEXTERITY GAMES

In the spirit of snap, there’s nothing quite like a dexterity game to bruise a few fingers. In games like Slap .45, Six Gun

Showdown or even Worm Lord, there’s an element of speed and dexterity that’s going to lead to your wins and losses. Not for those who are worried about bumping knuckles or catching a finger, but being the quickest on the west (side of your gaming table) feels great, like winning a

school sports day.

THE HUMBLE WORD GAME

Spanning the world from Articulate to Word Slam, the ability to describe words, think of other words like that word, or scramble and unscramble letters is core to this kind of game.

Sometimes a little bit cerebral, sometimes completely bonkers, nearly all the ones you’ll find in this magazine will be better than Scrabble – mostly because they don’t make us feel quite as stupid.

‘YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?’ GAMES

I think I know how you think, and you think you know how I think, so you’re going to give a clue and I’m going to have to work out if you’re thinking the way that I’m thinking or are anticipating that I’m thinking what you’re thinking and let’s be honest, that’s a whole lot of thinking. Games like Just One and Wavelength poke at this feeling, and you’ll find yourself shortly knowing how the other players think way more than you anticipated.

ACTUALLY, IT’S A KIDS GAME

… and now someone has been hurt. No one wants to lose a kids game after all. Kids games are often super distilled experiences that touch on the best parts of abstract gaming and strategy, while not getting bogged down in complexity or fiddliness. As such they are prime ground for grown-ups getting a bit too competitive and demanding rematches immediately. Prime examples of this are

Echidna Shuffle, Hey, That’s My Fish! (praised by Trevor Benjamin as being an excellent abstract war game in arctic clothes) and Happy Salmon.*